Lesbian, Romance, Nonfiction, Anthologies 

The 25 stories in Love Shook My Heart are love stories in the broadest sense, from unclouded girl-meets-girl romances to fantasies in faraway kingdoms--even a wintry story based on the Grimms' fairy tale "Frau Trude." Some of these pieces will seem familiar to readers. The coming-out narrative, for instance--that exclusively gay genre--is well represented, including the requisite lesbian back rub. And there are lots of ex-lovers in the book--another fixture on the lesbian landscape--some running away, others returning, full of endearments. Less romantic, but equally resonant for queer readers, is Judith Stein's "Members of the Wedding," a painful portrayal of culture shock in which two "fat Jewish dykes" travel from Boston to attend a straight wedding in Nashville, Tennessee,a city that seems to them like "some kind of alternate-reality amusement park." The best piece in the collection may be Antonia Matthew's inventive "If This Were...," in which two women seduce each other by imagining what they would be doing and saying if they were characters in a romance. Not all the stories here meet the literary level of "If This Were...," but most are interesting and thoughtfully written, quietly documenting passion in its many changing forms. --Regina Marler - from Amzon